U.S. military officials sought permission to send an armed drone near a patrol of Green Berets before a deadly ambush Oct. 4 in Niger, but the request was blocked, raising questions about whether those forces had adequate protection against the dangers of their mission.
New information shows the Green Beret team was part of a larger mission, one potentially more dangerous than initially described, and one believed to merit an armed drone. But the request was blocked in a chain of approval that snakes through the Pentagon, State Department and the Nigerien government, according to officials briefed on the events.
One focus of military investigations into what happened in Niger will be what a military official now says were two changes in the mission of the Green Beret team—from initially training Nigerien forces, to advising on a mission to capture or kill a wanted terrorist, to investigating the terrorist’s abandoned camp.
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Update #1: Military Officials Requested Armed Drone For Green Beret Team, But Were Denied (Daily Caller).
Update #2: Forces in Niger denied use of armed drone: report (The Hill)
WNU Editor: Someone must have been concerned if they made a request for an armed drone to be in the vicinity where these US Special Forces were ambushed .... and someone thought otherwise.
Update: Apparently the Niger government is hesitant to have armed U.S. drones flying over their country .... US Had Been Pressing Niger to Allow Armed Drones Prior to Deadly Ambush (United News International).
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